WGBH Spins a ‘Design Squad’ Remix
An interview with Melissa Carlson of the WGBH Education Foundation about the latest addition to the ‘Design Squad’ website.
Continue ReadingAn interview with Melissa Carlson of the WGBH Education Foundation about the latest addition to the ‘Design Squad’ website.
Continue ReadingNew Jersey Native Erica Rabner released her first original children’s album this Thanksgiving, ‘PB & JAMS’. It’s an album of message-driven music for kids and families, all written and sung by Rabner, and produced by award-winning music producer, Brian Blake.
Continue ReadingJohn Palfrey and Urs Gasser have updated ‘Born Digital: How Children Grow Up in a Digital Age.’
Continue ReadingA young English scientist explains complex theories from the comfort of his bath tub.
Continue ReadingWith its own strange way of expressing itself, the AP Style Guide will change its guidance of Internet to internet on June 1. “We will lowercase internet effective June 1, when the 2016 Stylebook launches,” it offered via Twitter, while turning lowercase into a verb.
Continue ReadingInterview with Melissa Carlson, digital producer of a game about flood protection.
Continue ReadingA new initiative to reduce distracted driving.
Continue ReadingNew research sheds light on how kids today are using media.
Continue ReadingMaybe like me you also use the Internet from time to time. Are any of the mundane aspects of your life now differently mundane thanks to cyberspace? Mine are.
Continue ReadingRedesigned Design Squad website offers the youngest makers engineering challenges.
Continue ReadingDiscover a new photo app from PBS KIDS to get budding scientists into the great outdoors.
Continue ReadingDo you have other household items that look like movie icons from 1984?
Continue ReadingI produce apps for kids as part of my work at WGBH, and, while we have a few projects aimed at a global audience, our projects typically try to reach kids in the United States. Our ‘Plum’s Photo Hunt’ photography app, however, has had a very large number of downloads from mainland China.
Continue ReadingOrdering new parts online is not as easy as it seems.
Continue ReadingDo you have a child between the ages of 8 and 12? Take the White House Healthy Lunchtime Challenge!
Continue ReadingI’m in a locked room, underneath a volcano somewhere in the southern hemisphere talking to one of the world’s leading security experts, Bruce Schneier.
Continue ReadingGoogle is upping its fare that’s directed at kids. GeekDad talks to some of those that follow media closely about this new direction for YouTube.
Continue ReadingThe wonderful PBS Kids has launched its own YouTube channel to collect all their great content.
Continue ReadingI spoke recently to uber-geek and new dad Nate Ball about his inventions, his books, and his role in helping a new generation of makers get inspired about engineering. We didn’t get to discuss his beatboxing, but you’ll find a link to his Ted X talk on that here also.
Continue ReadingAn unusual set of apps just started rolling out at iTunes. At first blush, Gracie and Friends may look like many other math apps for little guys. But a look under the hood reveals a unique and multi-year endeavor to create a breakthrough in evidence-based, educationally rich digital games for preschoolers. I asked my colleague Christine Zanchi to walk me behind the scenes.
Continue ReadingWe asked you to tell me some of your great experiences with kids and technology. Here are some of the positive stories you shared with us.
Continue ReadingWe’re all wrestling with how to fit the abundance of new technologies into our lives. I’m working on a new media & technology project for PBS and I’d love to hear from you.
Continue Reading“Inspired by children’s books, toys, and stop-motion films, we design digital toys that dive into the strange wonders of our everyday world,” according to Tinybop, maker of a stylish line of apps including a #1 App Store hit with their Toca Boca-style The Human Body and their new one, Plants.
Continue ReadingKIBO is a robot kit specifically designed for young children aged 4-7 years old. It is different from any other kit out there because it appeals to both technically minded kids and those that connect more to arts and culture or physical activity.
Continue ReadingSuspended over a suburban landscape, dogs leap, hurdle, glide and tumble through a floating landscape of meat products. In other words, this is a typical day in the life of Martha Speaks, the PBS KIDS web site of the TV series of the book series. This latest game, produced by my friend and colleague Laura Nooney, […]
Continue ReadingAnyone familiar with how hard it is to get from London’s Putney Bridge to East Finchley by Tube will know that this visual analogy for how internetty our lives are becoming is as good as any.
Continue ReadingWhile everyone is enjoying superhero origin stories this year with X-Men, Spider-Man and Gotham, I thought I would (self-)indulge with my own trip down memory lane. Harking back to 2002, I and a handful of chums (Gentry, Kevin and Rick) formed the FFFBI, the Fin, Fur and Feather Bureau of Investigation: a motley crew of animal agents led by Agents Elbow and Wrist guided kids on adventures to foreign lands and some closer to home in valiant attempts to thwart (there was a lot of thwarting) the strangely charismatic Skip Intro and his Cyber-Toothed Tigers, not to mention C.R.U.S.T. and the Sandwich Faced Daddy’s Boys.
Continue ReadingMany parents want to use the free resources PBS KIDS offers and to engage with familiar PBS KIDS characters that their children love. Today, PBS moves another step forward in that direction with a sophisticated new (and free) app which gives a parent Super Vision.
Continue ReadingFor all the talk about NSA surveillance and major breaches of credit card security such as the recent one at Target, there has been little public debate about kids’ data and the vast trove of information our kids give away, usually unknowingly.
Continue ReadingI’m talking to one of the educator/gamers who is turning Minecraft into a powerful school resource, Minecraft Edu. It’s Mikael Uusi-Mäkelä in Finland.
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